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Fantasy Football Tips: Weekend Team News.

Friday, May 3rd, 2013 at 2:50 pm by Phil Mc Grath

With this week’s player and captain tips out of the way it is time for us to have a look at all the news from this morning’s press conferences as we try and gleam some sort of understanding about how the teams will line up this weekend.

We start this weekend’s team news off at Craven Cottage where Martin Jol has confirmed that Mladen Petric is out of action this weekend with a knock he sustained against Everton last weekend, but there was good news from Jol, he expects to have Sascha Riether, Dimitar Berbatov and Kieran Richardson all available for the visit of Reading. The Royals on the other hand will be without Jimmy Kebe who still hasn’t recovered from a groin injury, but Nigel Adkins is hopeful that with both Hope Akpan and Adam Federici back training today the pair will be available for the weekend.

Over at Carrow Road Chris Hughton has confirmed that he will be once again without the injured Michael Turner when Villa come to town, but apart from that the rest of his side are ok. Paul Lambert will assess the fitness of Ciaran Clark and Karim El Ahmadi ahead of Saturday’s clash against the Canaries but is hopeful the pair will be ok.

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini says Joe Hart ”doesn’t have any problem” and should be fit to start against Swansea tomorrow. Meanwhile Swans boss Michael Laudrup has confirmed that Chico Flores did hurt his arm and it has swollen up but he should be ok to face Manchester City at the Liberty Stadium. Over at White Hart Lane AVB has said that Emmanuel Adebayor has recovered from a knock that was causing him pain in his knee and is in contention to start against Southampton and he also reckons there’s “a good chance” Mousa Dembele will be fit for Southampton game this weekend. The Saints have no new injury worries but will be without Gaston Ramirez and Daniel Fox after the pair saw red against West Brom last weekend.

West Brom will be without Marc Antoine Fortune after he was sent off last weekend and Steve Clarke has also confirmed he will continue to be without Chris Brunt and Goran Popov as the pair struggle to come back from injury. Roberto Martinez will also be without some key men with both Maynor Figueroa and Antolin Alcaraz missing out this weekend’s game with the Baggies, with reports suggesting that the former of the pair could be out for the rest of the season.

Newcastle have finally had some good news with Alan Pardew announcing that Fabricio Coloccini is fit and well and will feature against West Ham this weekend, while the Hammers have no new injury concerns heading into the game at Upton Park. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Lukas Podolski will continue to lead the Gunners attack in the absence of the suspended Olivier Giroud, despite Theo Walcott’s claim that he would love to play up top for the remainder of the season. QPR are still awaiting news on Christopher Samba ahead of their home game against Arsenal but R’s boss Harry Redknapp is hopeful of having the former Blackburn man back in time.

Ahead of the Merseyside derby Liverpool have no new injury concerns while Everton boss David Moyes has admitted that this weekend’s game at Anfield has come too soon for Philip Neville and he also went on to say that former Manchester United midfielder Darren Gibson has “a chance” of making it but we wouldn’t hold out much hope of seeing him this weekend.

Elsewhere Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that Danny Welbeck is out of contention after failing to overcome injury but that both Nemanja Vidic and PaulScholes are back in training. Having secured a place in the Europa League final Chelsea have confirmed that Eden Hazard was taken off in the second half against Basel as a precaution and the injury is not a serious one and he should be ok for the weekend.

And finally Tony Pulis just can’t seem to catch a break as he confirms that Marc Wilson, Andy Wilkinson and Glenn Whelan are all injury concerns ahead of Stoke’s game with Sunderland and the Black Cat’s will be without Stephane Sessegnon for the remainder of the season after his appeal for the red card picked up against Aston Villa was dismissed by the F.A.

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